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Good morning!
>Speaking of ‘not a lot of caffeine on board’>
I am not sure there is ever enough caffeine on board for me 🤣😂
I think the decel game when GREAT!!!
She did better and better about finding the jump and not running past it at the beginning of the first video! Then on the 2nd video, she had no questions about that at all.She is responding really well to the decel cues and you were great about keeping the decel separate from the rotation.
On the first video, the reps at 1:03, 1:26, 2:06, 2:29 all had clear decel and it was cool to see her collect to make the turn! FUN!!! And you were really good about facing the jump until she looked like she was going to take off, then doing the rotation. As she gets more experienced with this, you can start your decel sooner – right after she exits the start wing – as long as you keep the same timing of the rotation.
On the 2nd wrap video, things were a little harder mainly because you needed her to turn right and her preferred direction is left. So you had to be super perfect. At :29, you were a little late and stepped in towards the jump so it looked like you wanted a rear cross to the left (and she was happy to turn left :))
Excellent adjustment on the next rep at :45 with earlier decel and NOT stepping in towards the jump! Yay! You really exaggerated facing the right turn wing and it helped.
You did something similar at 2:05 – you turned your hips towards the right turn line the tiniest bit to really cue the right turn as you decelerated, and that really helped her set up a great right turn there.
You got a threadle wrap at 1:10 and that was because you did indeed pull away and face the threadle line for a heartbeat (you can see her look at you there to be sure) and then she was happy to do a threadle wrap to the left 🙂
So definitely keep exaggerating facing the right turn line as you decelerate, to help convince her to turn right. She is very good at turning right, but it must feel much easier turning left.
Looking at the zig zags – I think she really liked the tunnel at the end of the first rep and later in the session too. Fun!! The zig zags are very cerebral with a lot of stays, so adding that is can really keep her pumped up especially if she is brain fried.
She did have some stay errors – it might be a bit of brain tired and also a bit of anticipation. When you got to your lead out position, you were often releasing right away so she might have been predicting that your arrival in position was the release.
But overall it was a good session even though she didn’t have a lot of brain juice left LOL! You can play with moving the jump wings closer so she has to zig zag even faster while you cue faster too.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We did a morning Smiley Face game & and an evening Minny Pinny with verbals.>
Sounds like a fun agenda for the day!!
Looking at smiley face: he barks sometimes now when you say “ready” – it is like he is saying “Heck yeah!” Love it!
He drove really well to the tunnel when you were facing the line. If you pulled away from the line, he went with your motion which is correct (good boy Lew!) An example of that is :51 where you were saying tunnel but turning towards the other end of it so he went with the direction your feet were pointing (feet are probably the most obvious cue for him :))
Compare that to the next rep at :56 where you took a couple of steps towards the tunnel until he locked onto the line and then you pulled away. Perfect!
>he didn’t have enough steam coming out of the tunnel to do both wraps.>
Yes, that was really interesting – it was like he exited the tunnel and almost stopped. It was hard to tell if he needed to see more connection & motion, with you that far ahead by the wing? Or if he believed a reward was coming and was not sure what to do next?
Either way, yes – you can totally move the wing in closer. I don’t think it is a wing value issue because when you start next to it or send to it to start, he nailed it. So it might be a “I do a thing after the tunnel??” question – and having th wing a lot closer will help. That way you can be closer, super connected, give a big step or two, and a fast & easy reward. I figure he will sort it out very quickly and then you can add more distance again like you had here.
He definitely had big opinions about being held for the Minny Pinny so yes, it was good to NOT fight with him and start with him next to you at the beginning. You were good about being stationary and he was happy to not be held when he was fired up.
You did give him rewards for letting you hold him at the start later in the session, and he seemed to approve of that 🙂 Plus, when he is fired up and feeling feisty, being touched might be unwanted so that is good info! A lot of Border Collies don’t want to be touched when they are fired up, so he is just saying that small dogs can be fired up too 🙂
The regular part of the Minny Pinny (turning toward you in both directions) is easy peasy now – he is bouncing the distances! Yay!
Turning left is harder when he has to turn away from you or when you are more neutral, so you can totally place a reward between the first and second bar to give him a focal point to get into the movement. When that is easy, you can move it between the 2nd and 3rd bar. He might not need the reward at all on the right turn side, he seemed really strong with that!
>I think I need to clean up my mechanics. My rewards were late and he was checking my hands for treats.>
Because turning away was hard especially when there were treats in your hand, a placed reward will totally help! It can even be just an empty bowl or target – that way he can find the turn and you can have seats in your hands.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>I was particularly happy with his enthusiasm and footwork.>
Totally agree! And with his stay also! He was able to move side to side over the bars with no problems. Excellent!
Since this went super well, we can add more challenge 🙂 There are two ways to do that:
– rather than have you stationary at the end of the line, you can lead out halfway and release him. The handling then is like a serpentine depending on where he is relative to you: either send then serpentine (if you are on the same side as he is), or serpentine then send (if you are on the landing side of the first jump).
– we can shorten the distance to see if he can bounce back and forth without a stride between the jumps. This could happen with a wingless upright replacing the wing upright in the middle, or you can use weave poles as jump bars because they will be shorter.
If you shorten the distance, you can lead to the end like you did here because we don’t want to add *both* challenges at the same time.
But if he has no trouble with the shorter distance? You can lead out halfway and add your motion.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We didn’t get to do much yesterday because of the weather. Yes it is yucky. >
These 100 degree temperatures in September really suck. BOOO!!!!
I agree, the get out proofing went great! He worked brilliantly – he looked hot but you kept it short and rewarding, and the setup was in the shade, so he was fast and accurate. Yay!
Your upper body was spot on here! Your feet wanted to migrate towards the ‘out’ jump, so to build more distance you can put a line on the ground. That way your lower body moves along the line and doesn’t step to the jump (and your arm/connection/verbal do the ‘out’ cues like you did here
Since he really had zero trouble with this game (and you added more distance so the out jump was further), you can move to the advanced level of adding a cross (front or blind) when he is on the way to the out jump.
Great job!
Tracy
Hi!
Do you mean for the pre-games with the prop and hand target? If so, you are correct – there are not field guides for them (but I think there should be field guides for them, so I am going to go put Field Guides in today! Sorry about that!)
If you mean the prop game from week 1, then yes there are field guides. The PDF of the field guides is in gold lettering at the top of the page, and the actual field guides are found if you scroll down.
Let me know what they are missing so I can be sure they are there.
Thanks!
TracyGood morning!
He is a very serious worker, love it!!!
Great start with the foot target prop here! I like that you moved to throwing the treat really early on – he was building in looking at you when you rewarded from your hand and tossing the treats got him focusing more on prop and looking at you less.
Adding the sending went well and he liked the action. I don’t think he understood the ready game at first (“I thought we were offering, human?!?!”) but he caught on really well. You can totally reward him for sticking with you during the ready game, so he doesn’t keep offering and then not be sure why he wasn’t getting rewarded. So ‘ready’ means “engage with me” and the send is the indication to the prop.
You can also mix a toy into this, especially on the sending 🙂 Don’t add distance until he has seen the transition from ready engagement to the prop more and doesn’t ask questions about it 🙂
Hand target: Great job getting him pumped up with cookie tosses! He was a good boy about investigating the nose target. Keep your hand extended out away from you (at a 90 degree angle from your torso) so he doesn’t get locked into being in front of you. And, when he is targeting, you can shift your gaze to the target rather than look at him (he is cute, but looking at the target helps him also look at the target :))
This game doesn’t get used for a few more weeks, so it is a low priority for now 🙂
Forward focus:
Those treats are bouncy! Try to toss on a line directly in front of him so he doesn’t curl in front of you to get the treat. He easily leaves you behind in this game, love it! And I think you were looking at him (when we could see your face :)) so good job with the connection too!
You can take this outside and use a toy both inside and outside. Will he bring the toy back pretty well? If so, rock on, add distance! If not: starting indoor, have a 2nd toy tucked away. As soon as he gets to toy 1, you run the other way and pull out toy 2 to get him to come back (with or without the first toy, that doesn’t matter yet :))
Starting indoors gives him fewer options to run around with the toy 🙂
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>And it got me sweaty all that running. >
Yes! Puppy training is a sweaty thing for sure LOL!
>I can’t run very fast myself!>
That is one of the goals of the driving ahead game: he goes fast so we don’t have to 🙂
> I played with him a lot between throws which he does really like.>
Perfect!!!
The driving ahead session looked great – he got to run super fast, and you played far longer than the work was. And his pounce almost made me snort out coffee – SO CUTE OMG!!!
He drove ahead like a rockstar, happy to leave you in the dust even when you were running. But more importantly: he was fully engaged for almost 2 minutes, then you ended the session. CLICK/TREAT FOR YOU!
You also had good transitions from the tugging back into the game – was he wearing a collar? A collar or harness will make it easier to hold him for this long throws especially when we build on this game in coming weeks.
The bowl session also went well! Did you notice how he stayed engaged even when the whole bag of treats plopped over onto the ground? Super good boy! He was getting into the rhythm really well so for the next session, move to the advanced level and add an upright (anything tall and skinny) between the bowls for him to start wrapping 🙂
>Though here he didn’t really want to switch to the toy. He really wanted the treats.>
The context here was ‘we are doing the food bowl game’ based on the presence of the treats and bowls, with you down on the ground like that.
To get more tugging, get the bowls outta there and run to a new spot 🙂 That way there is not context conflict based on the presence of the bowls or the smell of the treats. Movement will get him back into the toy, and you can whip out a long crazy toy for him to chase.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
Nice tugging at the start of the nose touch video, and super nice transition to getting the toy back! When she lets go of the toy, you can also reward it by sometimes giving the toy right back to her 🙂 You did that at the beginning of the foot target video and it is definitely something to do lots and lots of.
I love the ‘hunt’ marker: unique and clear!
She definitely likes movement (this is not surprising in a baby BC) so I think the stationary cookie rewards t the target along with the relatively stationary nose target behavior was causing some of the mental wandering and offering of foot targeting too LOL But adding the ‘hunt’ helped keep her engaged! You can use that as the primary reward – mark the hit with ‘hunt’ then throw the treat away for her to, well, hunt for LOL
Or you can use your ‘yes’ marker but instead of feeding at the target, extend the other hand (with the cookie in it) out away from you for her to move to.
>She seems a bit stronger at it when the target is in my left hand.>
Agreed! It could be a side preference we are seeing from her, or a side preference from you 🙂 If you train more with stuff happening at your left side, there will be more value and better mechanics for it. So balancing both sides a bit more are all she needs.
She is doing well with this game, so it is a low priority for now – we don’t actually use it of a few more weeks 🙂
Foot target: She was happy to offer targeting to the hat. Yay! When rewarding at the hat, you can drop it on the hat so she is not watching your hand as much. You can see she was adding in looking at you 🙂
Since her targeting is going well and we don’t want her looking at you too much: you can shift to to thrown rewards. Instead of yes-feed from hand-hunt-toss, take out the yes/feed from hand. Mark the targeting with the ‘hunt’ and throw a treat. That will transition very nicely into the sending game posted on Tuesday!
Also, great job breaking things up with toy play – you are a real pro with that! As you noticed during the session, she had a little trouble tugging while you reached for food but that will get easier as she gets more experienced, no worries at all.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Oh, she is for sure related. All the Blue Cedar dogs are pretty tightly related. >
Fun! I do not allow myself to look at their current litters because I already have a lot of young dogs and have no business looking at puppies LOL!
>Drover is the typical quick-footed old line Blue Cedar that I love so much. Oh, I got to meet those pups when they were just a few days old!>
Perfect! I am excited to meet the new pup!
>Rant does not care much about food. She’ll eat anything and everything off the ground, as long as it is not dog food.>
That is hilarious LOL! But also, no worries, we can build up the food drive and turn her into a piggie for food while maintaining the lovely tug drive she has.
>She is very aware of her environment. I don’t want to say sound sensitive, because I am hoping with all my might that she is not and will not be But, she is aware of every tiny sound and every tiny movement. >
The resilience track is where you will find lots of ideas for this! Lots of games and approaches for pups who are aware. And they all go through sensitivity periods, that is a normal part of brain development. So we can help a lot by doing these games at this age.
>She tries to catch ants and bees. She’s got some hard lessons ahead of her, and I have a management nightmare. >
Oh dear! These resilience games and stealth self-control games will be super helpful here, but for now ye – so much management. Hopefully they aren’t fire ants!
Looking at the videos:
Food bowl video – overall, this went GREAT!
Question – does she eat her meals pretty well, out of bowls? If so, then using bowls in the training will bring that conditioned response (yum yum food!) into training and the food use will get even easier here.
She was REALLY good about eating here! And she was indeed in eating mode, so it took a minute for her to realize she might also offer behavior (literally, only a minute). Your stealth cookie placement was excellent so she was getting into that back and forth pattern!
After about 2 minutes, she was perhaps getting a bit full of treats and settling into offering stationary behaviors, so you can break the session up more: do 3 or 4 treats, then remove the bowls and tug like a crazy person for a short burst. Then switch back to the cookie game, putting the bowls back in and going back to food. This will allow you to get more reps and also build up the excitement of eating food in training even in the presence of toys (which can be in a pocket or up on a table to start).
The toy session went GREAT too! She is already really good about recognizing that the transition from active toy to ‘dead’ toy means to release and offer behavior. Then she drives like a shark to the next toy. Love it! Easy peasy!
With the toy version of this game, definitely move on to the advanced level of putting an upright in (anything tall and skinny-ish to go around will work nicely). And when she can zip back and forth around with with the toys, you can also add it to the 2 bowl game as well.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super nice tugging at the start of the forward focus video! She is a great little tugger!
I recommend a collar or harness for this, so you have something to hold onto (she is slippery 🤣and might not appreciate the chest hold as we extend the game).
Her forward focus on the toy was excellent! So you can move to the next steps of throwing the toy further and adding your movement so she begins to feel the handler motion.
>My mechanics on the send game were off I think.>
These early games are definitely about mechanics, which is why we mess around with props rather than real agility stuff 🙂
Video 1 – I think you were trying to hold her or touch her during the ready game, and you don’t need to – that might be why it felt weird 🙂 During your ready game, you can just be a bit crouchy and dance in place a little bit without holding her, then send her to the prop.
She did well on your right side – then on the last rep on your left you might have been a bit further and not as clear with the send, so she did a hand touch LOL So cute!
The 2nd video went even better – really good hits when you were up close. She definitely had a little question when you got further on both sides. For now, try to be 2 or 3 feet from the prop, and during a few sessions we will gradually move your further and further away.
The prop itself is a good choice! It blends into the rug a bit, which might be why it was not as easy to see. So maybe playing this game on a contrasting surface so the prop is very obvious will help add more distance too.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning! Lovely session here!
She was a great little tugger 🙂 And her focus on the toy was top notch – She looked at the with good duration. You can add in a little bit of quiet praise (quiet, long ‘goooooood’) to help add in some affirmation of yes, we love when you keep looking at your line 🙂
And also, you can add in more of your motion but that might need to be done outside.
I see a side preference here – she seems to be a lefty! You were really good about playing this on both sides of you: when she was on your right, she turned left with is the expected direction (towards you). When she was on your left side… she also turned left 🙂 Is that something you’ve seen elsewhere in training and/or life? It is useful info!
To try to convince her to turn to her right more: when she is on your left, you can release her to the toy (or you can do it with a tossed treat) and you are going to move away to your right instead of towards the treat or toy. That can help draw her focus to her right, and get her to turn right.
>I’ll need to tie the toy. She was great at coming back with it when I first got her.>
Yes, that is something we do see – the retrieve of the baby puppy goes bye bye LOL!!! You can take the retrieve out of the more formal training stuff and just sit on the floor with a bunch of toys. You throw one, she brings it back, you throw the next one, she brings it back. And you can add in a cookie reward for bringing it back. It is something to do while you are watching TV 🙂
It is one of the rare games I might do with another dog around because social learning can actually help the retrieve! So if Sprite will bring a toy back, you can have both of them playing this with many many toys available so they are not competing with each other – and whoever brings the toy back, gets the prize of more toy or cookies. Or, you hold one, send the other to a thrown toy, reward the retrieve, then switch to the next dog. All of this informal silliness is where my retrieves are built and maintained 🙂
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
> For these videos I asked him to work too long, which I usually don’t do. >
Looking at the time stamp with the first video being only a little over a minute long, the session was not too long (unless there was more to it not on the video). But it might have been too repetitive or the treats were not exciting enough when there was a distraction outside, or both!
What you can do, though, is break the game off after every 3 or 4 treats for something wild and engaging. Toy play, chase a ball, chase you, chase thrown cookies (I don’t know him well enough to suggest one of these in particular). Then after a bit of wild play: back to a bit of shaping for 3 or 4 treats… then break it off for party time again 🙂 Woohoo! That will keep him from gettng bored with too much repetition. And you can use higher value treats outside, where you are up against some good distractions 🙂
>I also did a little of the drive to toy game. This is his favorite toy and he went from the food in the bowls to the toy pretty easily. Though again I worked too long and he left me. So we just ended.>
Was this the whole session? Again, 35 seconds is definitely not too long and I agree that he was GREAT about going from food to the toy.
I don’t think he worked too long – I think what happened was that he didn’t want you to take the toy away. On the previous reps, you got your hands on the toy fast and took it away within 3 or 4 seconds and put him back to work. He was like, ‘what the heck?’ He was vocalizing when you took the toy away, and that could be a protest. So when he had the opportunity to take the toy on his own, off he went.
So to prevent him bailing on the toy play to keep the toy: let him ‘win’ it for longer. If he brings it back: great! Play play play play play. If he doesn’t bring it back, you can whip out another toy and trade, or trade him for something else he really likes (like a treat). Make the play and the trade last a long time so he doesn’t feel like he needs to keep the toy away from you 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Her little bandanna is the CUTEST thing!
She was interested in the toy at the beginng and at the end – even after the bologna!!! That is huge! You can try tying that toy to a longer toy for her to chase as you drag it – it might be hard to catch on video but that is fine. I am very excited that she played with it after an incredibly high value food reward!
>She is not the most food motivated so I cut up bologna in tiny pieces and she really likes this
However being the sweet thing she is sometimes she just wants smooches>Yum, bologna! Excellent first foot smack on the shoe! Yes! She was hilarious trying to smack you after that: “It is something with the smacking” haha! She got lots of good hits in so if she can happily it like this in the next session, you can move to the sending game too,
When she is offering, try to be quiet and just look at the shoe, I think talking to her was drawing her attention up to you a bit. Then during the reward, you can praise and chat her up like you did here 🙂
>My plan with her is to take this very slow. I just started the nose touches we will do a few more sessions of that before we film.>
That sounds perfect! We’ve got plenty of time., And we don’t need the nose touches for a few more weeks. Some of the other games are fast & fun & simple (like the blinds and the driving ahead) which is a nice balance to the shaping games.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello and welcome!!! It is great seeing you!
Rant is adorable. I wonder if she is related to my Hot Sauce, who is Blue Cedar on her mom Gadget’s side. I feel like we discussed it when I had Hot Sauce out in Vegas a zillion years ago. And my friend & teammie Jill (also in this class!) is bringing home a Blue Cedar baby soon – a Drover baby, if I remember correctly?
>I’m getting a late start. I also haven’t had a puppy in 9 years and I really haven’t been training, so I’m super rusty.>
You are not late at all! 14 weeks is a perfect age to start.
>Add to that, Rant does not have the easy Border Collie, ‘I am here to serve you,’ brain that I had hoped for. She has a whippet brain to go with her whippet appetite.>
Ha! I love the whippet brain 🙂 They actually learn very quickly as long as we are fine with not seeing it in the actual session… sometimes the session is REAL BAD then they wake up the next day knowing everything there is to know about the behavior. But correct – they love to train but aren’t necessarily going to gaze longlingly at us to figure out how they can best work for us 🙂
Whippet appetite: does that mean Rant is a piggie eater, or doesn’t eat? All of my whippety dogs are absolute pigs, which is great! If she is not a good eater yet, we can build that up, no problem. She was eating in the video but chewing a lot – you might need softer treats she can just suck down until she figures out how to use her teeth LOL!! Or lots of toy breaks will speed up the eating too because she is more stimulated overall.
>But, I have been shaping with her the past few weeks and I am really proud of our progress and I decided her running wild with her sibling was actually good for both of them, since they were a litter of only two, and both seemed so developmentally behind at 8 weeks.>
Perfect!!! Making progress in shaping and getting her to play with her sib? A lovely combo 🙂
>I’m not 100% sure how to use the forum, do I continue to use this thread, or do I start a new thread with each video that I post?>
It will be easier to keep posting in this thread – it helps us keep track of what you’ve done and what she needs better. And the youtube link works best – if the video is too big, it won’t embed.
Looking at the foot target video:
Nice tugging at the beginning! She is so cute!Excellent first click: nailed it the instead she investigated the prop.
Try not to look at her when she is being super cute with her photo poses, keep looking at the bag 🙂 The bow was the CUTEST!
Because she was happy to offer interaction with the bag, the most effective rewarding was when you tossed the treats after the click – that clarified for her that you wanted a moving behavior and you got lots of good clicks in a row.
She kind of lost her train of thought when she noticed the other dogs barking, so big click/treat for YOU for being patient and not helping her. She figured it out really well! Then the toy break was well-timed. You can add in more toy breaks (every 3 or 4 clicks for now) because I think overall it will keep things exciting for her and she will offer even more behavior (and chew less :)) And during the tugging, pick up the bag so when you go back to the shaping and put it down, she will immediately go to it.
Great job here! For the next session, try it with your sitting on something – that way we can work our way up to you standing. If she is doing great with you sitting, you can stand in that session and even move to the sending game posted last night.
Have fun!
Tracy
Good morning!
>We haven’t done a whole lot of stuff, mostly working on life skills, integration with the girls (been unexpectedly interesting), but she is quite toy-motivated and also into food (toy is stronger), and we’ve done some shaping but not much so far (I only got her doing ‘in the box’ 2 weeks ago – so far behind!).>
You are not behind at all! You were prioritizing life skills and toy skills! She is a happy little worker so it will be easy to add the games now.
The bowls were very funny – she is clearly VERY HUNGRY and needs to make sure every single crumb is out of the bowl hahaha
If the bowls are so exciting that she spends quality time locking them, you can turn them over so the cookie goes on the top of it, or use different targets like a plastic lid or something. I do love a Border Collie that has strong food drive, so no complaints from me!
You were hilarious, repeatedly dropping the treat in LOL!! So funny! I am sure things will go great with non-lickable targets for the cookies 🙂
Two suggestions about the toy play, for training mechanics:
– Play with the toy before the bowls go into the picture, so she doesn’t turn out the bowls. Then when you go back to the toy, clear the bowls outta there. That will make for a cleaner sessions.
– At the end and in the 2 toy session for the wrap foundation, rather than grab her collar to get the toy back (which can bring ick feelings to the collar grab), see if you can make the toy ‘dead’ (you can use 2 hands for that) and wait til she releases it. Then she can have a cookie or take the toy to her bed like the end of the next video.
I love the Christmas wubbas or whatever those are in the toy session! You can slow things down with the toys – let her grab and tug, before the next one comes alive. She was at the toy for less than a heartbeat when you wanted her to go to the next toy. And slowing it down will help you make the transitions clear: live toy for 4 or 5 seconds (tug tug tug tug tug). Then let that toy go dead for 2 or 3 seconds… then the next one comes alive, repeat the process. You will find her beginning to release the toy when it goes dead and move to the next one – that establishes the rhythm and pattern of her offering to go back and forth without you wiggling the toy to get her to do it 🙂
I think she is ready for the advanced level here: adding a thin upright for her to go back and forth around! Definitely start it with the toys. And you an move to it very quickly when she is not licking the bowls LOL!!!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
